Processing SF-36 questionnaire data using an MS Excel-based calculator in patients after surgery on the thyroid gland

The internationally recognized non‑specific questionnaire for determining the quality of life SF‑36v2 is widely used in various fields of medicine. Despite the convenience of its use at the questionnaire stage, the complexity of the procedure for further processing the results limits the use of the questionnaire, as it requires a lot of attention and working time. Objective — to develop a user‑friendly tool in MS Excel for processing results from the SF‑36 quality‑of‑life questionnaire, eliminating the need for specialized software. Materials and methods. The possibility of using MS Excel spreadsheets to create a calculator for processing the questionnaire results using the SF‑36 questionnaire to calculate data obtained for a group of patients was analyzed. Results. The calculator «Calc_SF‑36‑ukr» was developed in the MS Excel environment to process the results of the questionnaire using the SF‑36 questionnaire. The resulting tool allows you to quickly perform the necessary calculations without the direct participation of the researcher. It was established that the calculations made using the calculator «Calc_SF‑36‑ukr» are correct and correspond to the results obtained using alternative means. Conclusions. The use of the developed calculator for processing questionnaire data using the SF‑36 significantly accelerates and simplifies the process of obtaining results. Electronic data processing reduces the number of errors associated with the human factor. The developed calculator allows for obtaining summary results for a group of patients using a single software tool. Further improvements to the developed tool will include enhancing the convenience of entering primary data, reducing the likelihood of random errors, adding a function to search for individual patient results, strengthening the protection of the calculation module from accidental changes, and more. The developed calculator can be used in scientific research and practical work.